Single Dad "Starting Over"(Hunter Hayes Fanfic)...Completed

Chapter 93

Sorry for the delay. I haven't felt well the last few days. This is the third rewrite for this chapter. I hope you like it.

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Hunter's POV

"Why didn't you break up with her sooner? Liddy asks for the second time.

"It's complicated."

"I kind of figured that. Nothing about any of this has been simple."

"No it hasn't." I pause to rub my neck, hoping somehow it will alleviate the tension I'm feeling. I know that Liddy and I need to have this discussion, but that doesn't make it any easier to do.

"So?"

"It's a long story."

"Hunter, are you going to answer my question or not?" She asks impatiently.

"Yes." I reply, before taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly. "Let me start by saying I knew within days I wasn't interested in Renee romantically."

"Then why didn't you just come and tell me that?"

"I wanted to, so badly. You have no idea how many times I thought about calling you or asking Liz to have you come to the door, one of the times I was dropping Harper off, so we could talk."

"What stopped you?"

"Guilt and the fact that you walked away."  I begin to pace. "My God Liddy, I knew I had to have put you through hell in order for you to break our engagement. I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. I felt terrible about hurting you and loosing your trust. How could I ask you to forgive me and take me back when I couldn't forgive myself?"

"Bbb but I remember one of the last few things I said to you, that night was that I would wait for your decision and that I loved you more than you would ever know. Why did you think I wouldn't forgive you or at least try to?"

Hearing those four words make me smile, maybe there's still hope for us. "I'm sorry. I really am. You just have no idea how ashamed I was and still am." I hang my head and sigh. "I agonized over what to do. Eventually, I realized I had to let you go because you would be better off without me. It nearly killed me to do that, but you deserved to be with someone who would make you smile every day of your life and clearly that wasn't me."

"But..."

I raise my hand indicating that I don't want to be interrupted. This was hard enough to say. I just needed to get it over with. "Once I made the difficult decision to let you go I had another choice to make, either wallow in my own grief or focus all my love and attention on Harper. Of course I chose to concentrate on her and not myself. She's my daughter, the joy of my life."

I glance at Liddy sitting on the leather couch. She is strangely quiet. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. "I convinced myself that if Renee and I could just raise Harper together I would at least be able to make her happy, since I failed you so miserably."

"Hunter, you didn't fail me." She says as she walks over and reaches for my hand.

"Yay, I did." I take a deep breath and continue. "I worked so hard to try and convince myself that the three of us: Harper, Renee and I would be the perfect little family."

"And that didn't happen I assume since you broke it off with Renee."

I fake a laugh. "No, far from it. After letting her move into my GUESTROOM, we started spending more and more time together. I could see she was trying, but no matter what she did Harper never really bonded with her, nothing like what she shares with you or my mother."